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14-Year-Old Boy Steals School Bus in St. Paul, Crashes at Roseville Gas Station

Posted at: 02/10/2014 9:27 PM

We are learning new details after a school bus stolen by a 14-year-old boy crashed into a Roseville gas station Monday morning.

The theft happened around 7:50 a.m. while the bus was parked on a side road with the keys inside and running near a Holiday on the corner of Rice Street and Wheelock Parkway in St. Paul, according to police.

When the driver walked out and found her bus was gone, she called her boss, police said.

The bus company’s operations manager used the bus’s GPS system to track the vehicle.

Police said the teen drove the bus to the Centerline Charter Corp. parking lot, where the busses park after dropping children off at school.

When this happened, the boy heard chatter on the police scanner, became afraid and drove away, police said.

The manager on the lookout followed the full-sized bus with a truck.

A short time later, employees at the Shell Station on Dale Street and County Road B in Roseville said they could tell something was amiss when a bus of that size pulled into the business.

The bus hit a gas pump as it tried to maneuver through the lot, according to employees and police.

When police arrived, they found the boy in custody of the bus company operations manager who pursued the vehicle, they said.

The boy told police he was thought the bus had been abandoned and wanted to return it to the charter company.

He ended up driving the nearly 40-foot bus, a total of 3.5 miles.

He was taken to juvenile detention, police said. He is expected to be charged with felony vehicle theft Tuesday.